This invention is directed generally to food cooking implements and more particularly is directed to a combination of structures for deep frying a turkey or other foodstuffs with improved safety. The structures of the invention provide a complete protective barrier that prevents splatter, which is initiated by immersion of the foodstuff into hot cooking oil, from being projected in any direction beyond the fryer.
Over the past several years deep frying a turkey has become an increasingly popular avocation because of the enhanced flavor, moistness, texture and attractive appearance of a deep fried turkey. For frying a turkey, a cooking pot that is large enough to contain a turkey is filled with a cooking oil to a level that is sufficient to surround and cover the turkey. The oil is heated to a temperature on the order of 325° F. to 350° F. and then the turkey is lowered into the pot and submerged in the hot oil.
As with many desirable activities, deep frying a turkey in this manner is accompanied by safety hazards that create risks of personal injury and property damage. Two of the principal risks that are inherent in deep frying a turkey are boil over and splatter. Both of these problems are caused by the presence of water on the surface and within the outer layer of a fresh or frozen and thawed turkey. Because the oil is heated to a temperature that exceeds that boiling temperature of water, when the turkey is initially lowered into the hot cooking oil that water is very suddenly heated to its boiling temperature. Some of that water is quickly vaporized to steam immediately on contact with the hot oil so the water rapidly expands in an explosive manner.
Boil over occurs when the exploding water generates, beneath the surface of the oil, a foam of oil mixed with steam. The oil foam rises upwardly over the rim of the pot and can run down the outside of the pot into a flame below the pot which can cause the oil to ignite and start a fire. The oil foam can also damage or destroy an underlying floor or other support surface on which a pot support and burner rest. Boil over is reduced or prevented by lowering the turkey sufficiently slowly in the hot oil combined with not overfilling the pot with oil but instead leaving an adequate distance from the top surface of the oil to the rim of the pot. The principal purpose of this invention is not to reduce boil over, although the preferred embodiment oft the invention is of some assistance in restraining or limiting boil over.
Splatter is caused by the water on and in the surface of a turkey explosively vaporizing near the surface of the oil. When the water violently vaporizes near the surface of the oil, some of the vaporizing water projects hot oil upwardly and outwardly from the pot. That hot liquid can be projected against the user and cause burn injuries. The projected oil can also strike surrounding objects and furnishings damaging them and possibly igniting them. The purpose of this invention is to eliminate all such splatter when the invention is constructed and used properly.
The prior art discloses devices intended to prevent boil over, typically by providing an annular lip or tray surrounding the upper part of the pot to catch boiled over oil. Others have provided shields against some of the splatter of cooking oil from a frying implement. But no prior art has been seen that is capable of entirely surrounding and completely enclosing the turkey beginning before the turkey contacts the cooking oil, continuing without interruption as the turkey is lowered into the oil and remaining for as long as desired after the turkey is fully immersed in the oil. All prior art leaves some opening through which splatter can project at some angle out of the pot as the turkey is initially lowered into the hot oil.
Therefore, it is an object and feature of the invention to provide a turkey fryer that entirely encloses an uncooked turkey with a protective barrier that catches splatter in all directions so that no hot oil can splatter and be projected from a turkey fryer embodying the present invention.